PopHorror Let's Get Scared
As a fan of horror cinema, I always hear “Hey man, you should check out _______ from back in the day, you’d love it”. Often time curiosity prevails, and I eventually do. Writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky’s (Nightmare Man) 1990 genre-blending horror/comedy There’s Nothing Out There is one of those films that someone always recommends but I never actually got the chance to see. With Ronin Flix’s awesome, all-inclusive, new Blu-ray release, all that has changed!
Synopsis
When a horror film buff tries to warn his friends spending spring break in a house in the woods of impending danger, they scoff at him, that is, until a huge mutant frog starts to pick them up one by one.
Take a look at the trailer!
With an opening scene featuring a beautiful, young video store clerk (Lisa Grant; Diagnosis Murder) being terrorized by an unseen creature and escaping, only to wreck her car in the woods, There’s Nothing Out There continues with an all-too-familiar setup. A group of co-eds is planning a weekend of partying and sex in the remote house that Nick’s (John Carhart III; Puppet Seizure) parents own.
Along for the trip are Nick’s girl Stacy (reggae bassist Bonnie Bowers), geeky David (Jeff Dachis), exotic exchange student Janet (Claudia Flores; Climb It, Tarzan), requisite jock Jim (Mark Collver; Barb Wire), his sexpot girlfriend Doreen (Wendy Bednarz; Yellow Bus), and the odd man out, horror nerd Mike (Craig Peck; You Only Live Until You Die).
After a brief encounter with some skinny-dipping punks, the gang settles in for a weekend of debauchery, only to be constantly annoyed by Mike’s ominous warnings that they are very likely living a real-time horror film. With a green, toothy, space frog with tentacles dispatching the (mostly) unsuspecting teens, will they ever heed Mike’s advice and start fighting back?
I absolutely loved There’s Nothing Out There! Despite the familiar scenario, the film is a smart, funny, beautifully written satire of horror film tropes, especially of the decade preceding its release. I wouldn’t go so far as to agree with the “movie that Scream ripped off” hyperbole, but indeed, There’s Nothing Out There was ahead of its time in a lot of ways.
Played almost completely “straight”, it comes off as an infinitely re-watchable, and quotable horror/comedy,– a “Caddyshack of indie horror” if you will. And of course, besides the unheeded warnings (although Mike is no Crazy Ralph), there’s a checklist of horror film tropes at play here: ridiculous gore, outlandish weaponry, gratuitous beheadings, even more gratuitous nudity (I think every single female cast member is topless at one point or another…) and more corny one-liners than you can shake a blood-soaked stick at!
The direction and writing are elevated by a top-notch cast, with Bowers really standing out as an excellent (not so) final girl, it’s a shame that she apparently tapped out of the acting world after this, one wonders what could have been.
This should-be-more-of-a-cult-classic-than-it-is gets the kitchen sink treatment from Ronin with this Blu release. A beautiful 2K scan and transfer, new commentary with Kanefsky, Dachis, and Carhart, as well as commentary from journalists Heidi Honeycutt and Amanda Reyes, and a storyboard segment round out the first disc.
Disc two includes 6 hours of Kanefsky’s back pages—10 shorts and features that he worked on from the 80s, with new introductions and commentary tracks! So many extras!! A nice, heavy card stock slip-cover, reversible sleeve, and a really cool 19”x16” poster make for a great collector’s grade package.
This fan, for real, is kicking himself in the ass for waiting so long to finally sit down and watch There’s Nothing Out There. It’s a benchmark entry in the horror spoof genre and deserves “cult classic” status more than a lot of films already in that category. Any fan, and I mean ANY fan, of 80’s-90’s horror will love There’s Nothing Out There.
Now I gotta stock up on shaving cream and lightbulbs…
Ronin Flix’s Blu-ray release of There’s Nothing Out There is available now from fine retailers.
